Carol Ann Duffy and Liz Lochhead Explore Memories

Both Carol Ann Duffy and Liz Lochhead provide an exploration of their childhood memories, and how these memories have changed and developed with age into analysis of social expectations of men and women in the 1960's. In Duffys poem Litany and Lochheads poem 1953, both poets reflect on their childish perceptions of their parents conformity to social convention. Duffy and Lochhead excellently implement a dramatic monologue form to convey their feelings towards their parents conventional roles within the home. In Duffys Litany, the poem is narrated by Duffys younger self who naively recounts women obsessed with social class and identity. The irregularity of the last two stanzas cleverly suggest that even at a young age Duffy felt as though the nature of these women who, dictated by the expectations of society at this time, and in particular Duffys strictly catholic community, seemed strange and distorted to her. Lochhead also uses a dramatic monologue form to great effect for her reflective poem '1953'. Lochhead expertly uses this form to convey the admiration she felt at a young age, and still feels as an adult towards her parents, and the pains they went to turning their house into a home. Her admiration for her father in particular is apparent as the first stanza, consisting of Lochheads memories of her father labouring outside around the house, is the longest. This suggests that Lochheads pride and admiration of her father is great as he partakes in outdoor work, stereotypically associated with the male at this time. Stanza two, although not as substantial in length as the first stanza still powerfully convey a spence of admiration and marvel at her mothers ability to turn an empty house into a colourful, war, home. Through her expert use of future continuous tense in the last stanza "I will watch" "coming up the path", Lochhead creates the deeply emotional and personal...

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...confinement. Possibility that was once limitless for the dolphins now has 'limits' imposed upon it that will become impossible to bear. The realisation will probably hasten the creatures' death, signalling that there is as much at stake from a psychological perspective as there is from the physical circumstances. Stifling of natural impulse and behaviour can have fatal consequences. The 'plastic toy' is a further reminder of the indignity visited on this majestic creature of the ocean. The phrase until the whistle blows is potentially ambiguous. In one level it simply refers to the controlling device used by the keeper but on another the poet might be reminding us that this sort of cruelty will continue until somebody exposes it for what it is. Duffy does effectively 'blow the whistle' on such practices. The final line, with its reference to 'our mind', neatly links the plural possessive pronoun with the singular noun 'mind' indicating a collective voice for a species. The tense change to 'we will' draws attention to the contrast between what the dolphins had, what they have now and can expect in the future. As a result, the dolphins assume an almost mythic status in that they appeal to archetypal impulses in us and in nature; they are not just the creatures who form part of it. 'The Dolphins' may just as easily be read as a poem about human disillusion, betrayal and loss of direction as it is about animals. As an interpreter of experience it offers us a new...

...Havisham
CarolAnnDuffy penned a dark, cynical poem titled Havisham. The poem articulates a deep anguish dramatic monologue of a lonely old spinster lady – Havisham, a character from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Havisham was ditched on her wedding day by her fiancé, the consequences were that she was no longer respected and secluded from the society. Decades have past, Havisham remains in her wedding dress and cruses the love of her life for the pain and torture she has faced every day of her life and will continue to do so until she dies. The poet has sink into the characters minds, expresses her thoughts and describes the gravity of the situation by adopting metaphorical setting to convey the juxtaposed theme of love and hate. CarolAnnDuffy has created sympathy for the character by adopting symbolic imagery and characterization to convey the deteriorating and pessimistic life Havisham portrays.
Havisham aged single granny, seduced by the dark society and her unfaithful lover curses her life and the naivety as she submerges in her loneliness in her bedroom. The poet has conveyed a striking opening to the poem:
“Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven’t wished him dead”
The poet has explored a metaphorical setting to an expose juxtaposed theme of love and hate by the use of oxymoron which illustrates that Havisham has deep feelings for...

...Originally
In the poem “Originally,” by CarolAnnDuffy, she is writing from a point of view of a child to adult for the reader to understand how she felt when she was a young girl moving to how she feels now. This poem is from the “The Other Country” collection, they all have a central theme of growing up with literary devices of imagery, diction, and alliteration threaded through the poem to help grab the reader’s attention. Duffy writes this poem using symbols as if she is telling the story to someone because that is the only way she can recall her true identity of from where she is “Originally,” from.
In the first and second stanza is about the sadness the child feels about moving and is almost a flashback he/she is having. Duffy brings the reader in by writing, “our own,” (1) making this a personal attachment from the reader and to the family with, “country,” following it. Then she puts us in the mind of a young child by writing, “red room/ which fell through the fields,” (1-2) providing alliteration for a vehicle and them driving through the forest. She does this because that is how she thought when she was a kid going on a long trip. The brother is crying, “Home/Home,” (4-5)to show how much he wants to be back and the mother is trying to make the best out of the situation(comforting the child) by talking to the father about what the good things to come, “our mother singing/ our father’s name to...

...NOSTALGIA BY CAROLANNDUFFY
Linda Wang
When we were younger we might have been homesick at school camps or sleepovers at someone that is not family. But we were lucky for the next day we would return to our family's embrace but there are people out in the world that suffer from nostalgia for years and decades before being able to see their hometown again. In
Nostalgia by CarolAnnDuffy, the mercenaries, strong brave men, described in the poem are tormented by the same feeling of nostalgia. In the new land they find it hard to adapt but when they return their home has changed as well. They feel like strangers to everyplace they go. Using sound devices, structure, diction and language techniques, Carol An. Duffy presents a sentimental story of the mercenaries from Switzerland fighting in a foreign land.
The author uses examples of repetition and other language techniques to give the most possible amount of impact on describing the feelings and thoughts of the mercenaries from Switzerland. When they decided to leave and began their journey, the repeated use of 'leaving' (1,2) indicates the hard choice of leaving, this idea is emphasised by contrasting the description of home as high, fine air (1,2) with the process of leaving described as 'down, down' (1,3). The double use of 'down' also expresses the feeling of the mercenaries leaving their further and...

...﻿Interactive Oral Commentary: Stealing
My name is Kate Sampson and today I will be analysing CarolAnn Duffy’s poem, Stealing. To begin with, I will provide some background information to help put the themes in this poem into context. It was published in the 1980’s during Margaret Thatcher’s Prime Ministership, it is essentially a political poem in response to a new culture of greed and selfishness that ignored the working-class. There were constant poll tax riots, miner’s strikes, homelessness, and unemployment.
My thesis for this poem is: the harshness of the society in Britain during the 1980’s is reflected through one single speaker through the use of syntax and structure to create feelings of alienation and destruction.
This poem can only effectively be analysed by considering the poem as a whole and not separating it by stanzas. The entire poem is a person confessing their crimes and admitting/bragging about what they have stolen. The majority of the poem refers to one time when he/she stole a snowman. Therefore, I will analyse this poem through the literary devices that are present and not by each independent stanza or line.
To begin with, the title of this poem proposes several ideas about the speaker. The act of stealing suggests a lack of purpose, a want of attention, and a distraction from pain. All of which are visible throughout the poem.
This poem is a dramatic monologue and...

...poems published in 1999 and written by CarolAnnDuffy, a modern feminist poet. It covers various myths in order to give women a voice. This includes the short monologue like poem: “Medusa”. How do metaphors, symbols and allegories contribute in clarifying the meanings of the poem? Primarily, they emphasise Duffy’s feminist ideals, Medusa’s emotions and aging difficulties.
Medusa, the protagonist, uses the myth metaphorically in order to create a modern and reliable tone, allowing a wider audience and switching the focus from her actions to her feelings. The poem rehabilitates the bad image methodology gave Medusa by making her go from a stoned hearted character into a humane one. Duffy asserts: “Poets deal in … trying to find the language and images for intense feelings.” (n.d, p. 2), based on the poem, jealousy destroys Medusa while in the Myth it is Athena’s. We can comprehend it through a metaphorical use of language: “jealousy grew in my mind”. It started growing in her and when it had no more place, outside, as dirty and vicious hair: “filthy snakes” (Duffy, 2008, p.1, l.3), which are literal in the myth but metaphorical in Duffy’s interpretation. To Medusa the snakes symbolise her “thoughts” spitting on her “scalp” (Duffy, 2008, p.1, l.4-5), as she could not hold it inside anymore, leading to grief.
The theme of sadness never vanishes. However, it is mostly evident in the...

...﻿Commentary on "Valentine" by CarolAnnDuffyCarolAnnDuffy talks of an unorthodox love in her poem “Valentine”, where she compares love to an onion. The narrator finds that gift givers portray love incorrectly when she mentions typical Valentine’s Day gifts. The poem is an extended metaphor of love being an onion, and she thinks of love as a violent emotion rather than a peaceful one. The narrator compares love to an onion in her poem "Valentine" to show that her opinion of love is unconventional, violent, negative, enduring emotion through her use of extended metaphors and diction.
The narrator portrays that love resembles an onion through her use of metaphors which creates the feeling of love being an enduring, violent and depressing emotion. She begins the poem by saying that an onion is “a moon wrapped in brown paper” (Duffy 3). This metaphor compares the onion and the moon on both a physical and figurative state. The onion is visually similar to the moon and the brown paper is similar to the onion’s skin. The brown paper is not very appealing but the moon is beautiful, and these two objects contrast with each other to show that love should not be judged at first sight. The narrator then says, “It promises light” (Duffy 4) to compare an onion, the symbol of love, to the moon. Since the moon does not create light and just reflects it from the sun,...

...In Havisham, CarolAnnDuffy creates an interesting character. Write about the way the character is created, and compare this with the way other characters are created in three other poems. You should compare it with one poem by Simon Armitage and two poems from the pre-1912 poetry bank.
In Havisham, CarolAnnDuffyexplores the character of Mrs Havisham and develops her by using vivid imagery and metaphors. She starts the poem with ‘Beloved sweetheart bastard’ which is an oxymoron, used to display her mixed emotions about love and the man who jilted her. The plosive sounds of b and d reinforce her angry tone and helps show how she mocks romance.
She is displayed as a bitter, hateful character who seeks revenge, shown with ‘not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead’ and ‘give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon’. This is almost contrasted with her loneliness and sexual frustration explored in the first stanza, with ‘some nights better, the lost body over me, my fluent tongue in it’s mouth in it’s ear then down till I suddenly bite awake.’
This shows her erotic fantasies due to never consummating her marriage but it also shows her sudden realisation that she is only fantasising. This may make the audience feel sorry for her despite her debauched behaviour and thoughts earlier on in the poem. Duffy does this to create a sense of confusion...